Oh Tess. I knelt on the floor and tried not to wince at the reek of alcohol coming from my bestie. In moments like these, advanced ash senses were not good.
The second I opened my arms, she fell into them sobbing. No words needed to be said. I knew how abandoned by me she felt and I was feeling like the worst bitch of a friend. Not that it had been a party-time picnic for me, but I had met so many amazing people in here, and while I missed her like crazy, I should have known she would have a tougher time. Tessa’s father was the only good thing in her life. After he died when she was young, her mom didn’t pick up the slack. I was her family.
My chest tightened then. “I’m always here for you,” I choked. “Fuck the Hive and their rules. If you need me, then I’m there.”
I pulled her face from my chest and made her look at me. Her eyes burned a brilliant green, the brown tinge to her hazel almost completely faded away. Her lips quivered.
“Charlie, I don’t know who I am anymore,” she moaned. “You and Blake are the only things real to me.”
My body shook. Seeing someone I loved making such a desperate plea for help ripped open my insides. I pulled myself together, holding her firmly.
“You’re Tessa Grace McNair, my annoying best friend who generally wouldn’t be caught dead out in public like this.” I touched her hair and she laughed.
“I drank a bottle of tequila. Now the room is spinning.” She lay her head on my lap and I stroked her hair.
“How dare you get hammered without me.” I joked, and she laughed before promptly rolling over and vomiting. A blond curl bounced out of her ratty bun and I snagged it, pulling it back as she puked. Because what are friends for if not for times like these.
“Oh good,” I said, trying not to gag as I laughed. “The one thing your homeless look was missing was the smell of vomit.”
Despite the dry heaving, she laughed with me then. It warmed my heart to know that in a few days I would be stuck with my mom and this crazy chick for Thanksgiving. I wouldn’t have it any other way.
I sat with her for longer than was usually allowed in feeding times, but eventually she had to leave the Hive. Jayden called my mom to pick her up and Oliver and Kyle helped me get her into the car.
My heart felt both overfilled and fractured at the sight of my beautiful mom. I used to see her at least once a week, and now we could go a month with nothing more than a few emails. It’s not as if I couldn’t arrange to meet up with her on rare, secret, occasions—like the upcoming Thanksgiving trip. Ryder would definitely figure out how to get around those rules. It’s just that it felt wrong to drag her into this dark world—people chasing me, trying to kill or kidnap my ass, knowing I was the cure and it was only going to get worse. How could I keep her close when she could easily become a possible victim or target in all of this?
I couldn’t. So distance was the key. But that didn’t make my heart ache any less.
Just before she left, my mom gave me a tight hug. “I can’t wait to see you for Thanksgiving. Remember to be there early so we can cook together.”
I nodded. We would have this day together, me, Mom, and Tessa. Just like old times, one last perfect holiday memory. It was so hard to release her; she smelled like home, like everything good and familiar, and I relished the close contact.
“Take care of Tessa, she’s just having a hard time adjusting to this.”
My mom nodded, and for the first time I noticed the strain in her face. “We all are, dear. I wish the rules were different. I wish the ash were allowed to come home. It’s not like you’re contagious.”
She kissed my cheek and got in her car, but what she said replayed in my head long after she drove off.
“Oliver, why don’t the humans let the ash live among them? Only the vampires risk spreading the virus, and surely many of the ash families would prefer they stayed with them rather than being killed off in the culling.”
Oliver gave me a side glance. “It wasn’t the humans that made that rule. I think the vampires like having us around to do all their dirty work. They declared that once the ash transformation took place, they were no longer classified as human and had to follow the rules of the vampire world. The humans were powerless to fight against it.”
My stomach threatened to bring up my lunch. WTAF! I thought there were no choices, that the humans wanted nothing to do with ash and that the culling was the best chance at survival. Were they seriously telling me it was the vampires keeping all ash from being with their families? From me possibly having my mom and Tessa permanently in my daily life, all so I could work for them, fight and kill for them? Oh hell no.